Mexican soldiers discovered more than 32 tons of marijuana in a major cross-border tunnel linking warehouses in Tijuana and San Diego Wednesday, immigration officials said.
Equipped with a hydraulic lift, the 2,200-foot-long passage featured electric rail cars, wood floors from end to end and a wooden staircase, Derek Brenner of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement told The Associated Press.
More than seven football fields long, the passage started in a kitchen of a Tijuana home to two warehouses in the industrial district of San Diego’s Otay Mesa.
“That’s a lot of marijuana,” said Kathleen Senft, a senior communications major. “How on earth did a tunnel of that astronomic size go undetected for so long? Think of how much revenue the plant brought in. Obviously a couple people made a lot of money in this deal. Over a couple million I’d say. No doubt about it.”
Several arrests were made including a Mexican trucker, Daniel Navarro, on Nov. 28,2011, to nearly 16 years in prison for his involvement in two major drug tunnels. Authorities who raided the tunnels seized about 50 tons of marijuana, the AP said.
The head investigator of the ICE said the tunnel was comfortable enough for movement inside, adding that it was lit and ventilated.
“I wonder how much it cost to build that tunnel,” said Mark Carmen, a junior economics major. “And how long it took them to build something so intricate. I mean hydraulic doors, and wood floors? Who knows, an architect might have been sanctions to engineer it so well. It’s insane how much time and effort went into something like that.”
Lauren Mack, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in San Diego, said, “It is clearly the most sophisticated, major tunnel that we have found in the last five years, perhaps ever,” the AP said.
The entrance was discovered on the south side of the border at a Tijuana warehouse after the U.S. opening was discovered.
The all-white building covered in paper was on the same block as a federal police office and sat adjacent to a tortilla distributor and a packaging company.